EE-379 Embedded Systems and Applications Introduction

Transcription

1 EE-379 Embedded Systems and Applications Introduction Cristinel Ababei Department of Electrical Engineering, University at Buffalo Spring 2013 Note: This course is offered as EE 459/500 in Spring Introduction Embedded systems System-level design ARM Cortex-M3 Course information Syllabus Topics Outline 2 1

2 Embedded Systems Systems that are part of a larger system Application-specific Diverse application areas Tight constraints Real-time, performance, power, size Cost, time-to-market, reliability Ubiquitous Far bigger market than general purpose computing (PCs, servers) $46 billion in 04, >$90 billion by 2010, 14% annual growth 4 billion devices in 04 98% of all processors sold 3 What is an Embedded System? Any electronic system that uses a computer chip, but that is not a general-purpose workstation, desktop or laptop computer. An embedded system is some combination of computer hardware and software, either fixed in capability or programmable, that is specifically designed for a particular function. An embedded system is a multi-agent system and computer system designed for specific control functions within a larger system, often with realtime computing constraints. Many other definitions 4 2

3 Where are Embedded Systems Used? Everywhere industrial machines automobiles, trains airplanes, space vehicles medical equipment video games, cameras, MP3 players, TVs cell phones vending machines, household appliances, toys etc. 5 General Types of Embedded Systems General similar to traditional computer systems, in a smaller package PDA s portable games Communications cell phones Signal Processing video and audio Control real time feedback control automotive aerospace appliances 6 3

4 Example of Embedded System: Digital Camera CCD Digital camera chip A2D CCD preprocessor Pixel coprocessor D2A Lens JPEG codec Microcontroller Multiplier/Accum DMA controller Display ctrl Memory controller ISA bus interface UART LCD ctrl Single functionality - always a digital camera Tightly constrained - low cost, low power, small, fast Reactive and real time - only to a small extent 7 Example of Embedded System: Mobile Phone 8 4

5 Mobile phones: the most successful technology ever? 9 Embedded Systems 10 5

6 Embedded Systems Characteristics Part of a larger system (system within system) Computational Interact (sense, manipulate, communicate) with the external world: sensors, actuators Reactive: at the speed of the environment Heterogeneity: hardware/software blocks, mixed architectures Networked: shared, adaptive, sensor networks (buildings, environmental monitoring), smart products, wearable computing Flexibility: can run/implement multiple applications sequentially or concurrently - concurrency Reprogrammability/reconfigurability: flexibility in upgrading, bug fixing, product differentiation, product customization Performance and constraints: Timing (frequency, latency, throughput) Power consumption, area, temperature Weight, size, cost (hardware & software), time to market Real time critical, safety, reliability 11 Key Recent Trends Difficult to design Planes still crash Car recalls Getting even harder to design: Increasing computation demands, increasing complexity e.g. multimedia processing in set-top boxes, HDTV Increasingly networked and distributed Increasing need for flexibility programmable & customizable time-to-market under ever changing standards Reaching physical limits of technology scaling Power walls (and dark silicon) Efficiency/optimality vs. flexibility/generality 12 6

7 Key Recent Trends Technological advances Higher integration: more blocks on the same chip Multi-Processor System-On-Chip (MPSoC) Embedded systems evolve toward System-on-Chip (SoC) Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) IP reuse, platform based design, NoC vs. Bus HW-SW co-design Diversity in design methodologies, platform dependent, lack of standards, quality risks, customer confusion Systems are designed and built as systems of systems Opportunity and need for specialization Heterogeneous multi-core / Asynchronous CMP GP-GPUs 13 SoCs Market Size 14 7

8 Outline Introduction Embedded systems System-level design ARM Cortex-M3 Course information Syllabus Topics 15 Challenges: Complexity and Heterogeneity Complexity High degree of parallelism at various levels High degree of design freedom Multiple optimization objectives design constraints Handled by working at higher levels of abstraction, hierarchy 16 8

9 Abstraction Layers System Task Component Instruction ISA Architecture RTL Logic uarch Gate Object code Gate-level models Switch-level models Circuit-level models Device-level models Layout models 17 Challenges: Complexity and Heterogeneity Heterogeneity Of components - Processors, memories, busses Of design tasks - Architecture, mapping, scheduling Handled by sophisticated HW-SW co-design methodologies ASIC control panel controller Real-time OS controller processes UI processes DSP Assembly Code Programmable DSP Programmable DSP DSP Assembly Code Dual-ported RAM CODEC 18 9

10 From specification Functionality, behavior Application algorithms Constraints To implementation Architecture Spatial and temporal order Components and connectivity Across hardware and software Design automation at the system level Modeling & simulation Synthesis & exploration Verification System Level Design 19 Design Process 20 10

11 System Specification Capture requirements (what) Functional Free of any implementation details Non-functional Constraints Formal representation Models of computation Objects & composition rules Concurrency & time Computation & communication Executable Semantics Application development Precise description of desired system behavior Complete and unambiguous 21 System Architecture Architecture definition Processing elements (PEs) Processors, memories, FPGAs, DSPs Communication elements Busses, Networks-on-Chip (NoCs), transducers, bus bridges Virtual platform prototyping PE simulation (functional, fullsystem) for computation Event-driven simulation, transaction-level modeling (TLM) for communication Design space exploration and system optimization Partitioning, mapping (allocation + binding), scheduling Estimation: Synthesis based on abstraction only makes sense if there are powerful estimation methods available: Estimate properties of the next layer(s) of abstraction Design decisions are based on these estimated properties 22 11

12 System Implementation Hardware Microarchitecture models Register-transfer level (RTL) Layouts Software binaries Application object code Real-time operating system (RTOS) Hardware abstraction layer (HAL) System netlist Pins and wires Arbiters, muxes, interrupt controllers (ICs), etc. Bus protocol state machines 23 Hardware vs. Software Modules A significant part of the problem is deciding which parts should be in software on programmable processors, and which in specialized hardware. Hardware = functionality implemented via a custom architecture (datapath + FSM) Software = functionality implemented in software on a programmable processor Key differences: Multiplexing software modules multiplexed with others on a processor hardware modules are typically mapped individually on dedicated hardware Concurrency processors usually have one thread of control dedicated hardware often has concurrent datapaths 24 12

13 System Level Design Flow (Methodology) Past and present: Ad hoc approaches based on earlier experience with similar products, and on manual design HW/SW partitioning decided at the beginning, and then designs proceed separately Present and future: From HW/SW co-design to HW/SW co-synthesis Design automation (CAD) tools: very challenging 25 HW/SW Co-design HW/SW Co-design means the design of a specialpurpose system composed of a few application-specific ICs that cooperate with software procedures on general-purpose processors (1994) HW/SW Co-design means meeting system-level objectives by exploiting the synergism of hardware and software through their concurrent design (1997) HW/SW Co-design tries to increase the predictability of embedded system design by providing analysis methods that tell designers if a system meets its performance, power, and size goals and synthesis methods that let designers rapidly evaluate many potential design methodologies (2003) It moved from an emerging discipline (early 90s) to a mainstream technology (today) 26 13

14 Hardware Components HW/SW Co-design Hardware Concept Specification HW/SW Partitioning OK? Co-simulation Estimation - Exploration Software Components Software Validation and Evaluation (area, power, performance, ) 27 From HW/SW Co-design to HW/SW Co-synthesis! Early approaches: HW/SW partitioning would be done first and then HW/SW blocks would be synthesized separately Ideally system synthesis would do HW/SW partitioning, mapping, and scheduling in a unified fashion very difficult Design space exploration (estimation and refinement) would also be done in a unified fashion; by working at the same time with both HW and SW modules Co-synthesis Key: communication models 28 14

15 HW/SW Co-synthesis Co-synthesis: Synthesize the software, hardware and interface implementation in a unified fashion. This is done concurrently with as much interaction as possible between the three implementations. 29 Introduction Embedded systems System-level design ARM Cortex-M3 Course information Syllabus Topics Outline 30 15

16 Why study the ARM architecture (Cortex-M3 in particular)? Very popular in industry Lots of manufacturers ship ARM based products What differentiates these products? Peripherals! 31 MCU-32 and PLDs are tied in embedded market share 32 16

17 Outline Introduction Embedded systems System-level design ARM Cortex-M3 Course information Syllabus Topics 33 Course Info Class website (you are responsible for checking it regularly) BlackBoard for additional materials Office: Tu, Th 8:30-9:25am, Davis Hall 209 Lectures: Tu, Th 9:30-10:50am, Nsc 215 Labs: Davis Hall, COMSENS #5 (room 239) L1 (Tu, 12-1:50pm), L2 (Wed, 12-1:50pm), L3 (Th, 12-1:50pm), L4 (Fr, 8-9:50am), L5 (Fr, 10-11:50am), L6 (Fr, 12-1:50pm), L7 (Mo, 3-4:50pm) Grading Homework 15% Labs 15% Project 30% Midterm, final exam 20%, 20% 34 17

18 Topics Covered (subject to change) Assembly, C programming Memory and pointers Editors/Assemblers Instruction set Program design Basic I/O Serial communication Interrupts and timers Networking (TCP/IP) Scheduling Resource sharing RTOS 35 Summary Embedded systems are everywhere Embedded systems SoCs, CPSs System-level design is the key Key challenge: optimization of design metrics (which compete with one another) A unified view of hardware and software is necessary Course syllabus 36 18

19 Skills Needed An embedded system application involves a diverse set of skills that extend across traditional disciplinary boundaries, including computer hardware software algorithms interface electronics application domain Make engineering tradeoffs that extend across these boundaries 37 Embedded Systems and You As engineers, it is very likely that you will: Design microprocessors and other digital circuits (e.g., ASICs, FPGAs, etc.) to be used in embedded applications Develop algorithms (control, signal processing, etc.) that will be implemented on embedded microprocessors Develop software (e.g., design automation CAD tools, RTOS, apps, etc.) for the embedded market Work in application fields that involve an embedded microprocessor Design sensors/actuators (e.g., MEMS devices) that may be used in embedded systems Design and implement complete systems that contain embedded systems It is certain that you encounter embedded systems in all aspects of your daily life! 38 19